Definition

Noun: A butter dish is a small dish, often with a cover, designed specifically for holding and serving butter at the dining table.

Usage

The word butter dish is a compound noun. It refers to the specific tableware item used to keep butter clean, cool, and accessible during a meal. It is typically used in singular form. * Please pass the butter dish. * She placed the butter dish next to the bread basket. * The antique butter dish was made of porcelain.

Advanced Usage

• As part of a table setting: The butter dish is considered an essential part of formal and informal table settings to contain the butter portion.
  • For the dinner party, she ensured each place setting had its own individual butter dish.

Variants and Related Words

• Butter dish is a fixed compound. There are no common variants, but related items include butter knife (a knife with a blunt blade for spreading butter) and butter crock (a specialized dish that uses water to create an airtight seal for storing butter).

Synonyms

• Butter plate (though this often implies a flat plate without a cover).
• Butter server.

Antonyms

There is no direct antonym, as it is a specific object. The opposite concept would be the absence of a dedicated butter container.

Idioms and Phrases

There are no common idioms or phrasal verbs using the compound noun butter dish.

Noun

1. a small dish (often with a cover) for holding butter at the table